When a person is desirous of purchasing cosmetics, he or she is often confronted with a time consuming and very often unsatisfactory process. Retail outlets often carry only a limited number of manufacturers and their product lines, and if a customer cannot find the particular shade or consistency of lipstick desired, he or she will be required to visit additional retail outlets in search of another manufacturer and its product line which may or may not provide the particular shade or consistency of lipstick desired. Even after finding an acceptable lipstick, it is often shortlived in that the manufacturer may discontinue production of the desired type.
Alternatively, the customer can resort to catalogs or other written material which will provide the customer with an expansive list of information and possibly the particular shade and consistency of lipstick desired. However, the shade as it appears in printed form on the advertisement may be quite different from the shade when worn and viewed in ambient lighting conditions as opposed to the printed conditions of the catalog.
Such a system is not only frustrating and unsatisfactory to the client, but can also be unsatisfactory to the retailer and manufacturer. The retailer is required to maintain an expansive line of lipstick in inventory which may or may not turn over in profitable fashion, which necessarily limits the retailer to carrying only the best selling lines, or most cost-effective lines. The retailer will therefore not be able to fully satisfy all the needs of his or her client base. From the manufacturer standpoint, such a system is unsatisfactory in the sense that its product lines will be only carried in a few retail outlets which necessarily limits the total client base to which the manufacturer can extend its goods.
Certain areas of the cosmetics industry have therefore recognized this deficiency in the current system and devised alternatives to more closely tailor cosmetic products to the specific desires of the given customer. For example, U.S. Pat. 5,031,764, issued to Meador, et al, discloses an apparatus for designing personalized perfume by providing a system of tapered strips along with a family of fragrances. An individual is therefore able to use the apparatus of Meador '764 to design customized perfume or cologne in relatively quick fashion.
However, while systems such as the Meador '764 patent do provide a system by which personalized perfumes and colognes can be created, no system currently exists to create personalized or specially tailored cosmetics corresponding to the exact demands of each customer, and more specifically to the focus of the present invention, no system or method currently exists to allow specific shades, consistencies and textures of lipsticks to be created based on the specific demands of each customer. It therefore follows that no system currently exists to allow for customized lipstick creation in a relatively short time frame, without relying on a system of ordering and waiting for delivery from an off-site warehouse.